A Blog with reviews of opera performances, interviews and articles about opera and classical music in general
by a group of musicologists and music professionals

Sunday, 1 November 2015

Arrigo Boito, Mefistofele - Bayerische Staatsoper

Performance 29th October

As a highlight already at the beginning of the season the Bavarian State
Opera came up with their first production of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele in the
history of this prestigious theatre. The opera is adapted from Goethe’s Faust I
and II.
Very suitable for the home of the „spirit that always denies“ Roland
Schwab’s staging starts in a nihilistic chaos of wreckages where Mefistofele
lives with his own kind and begins the opera by himself by putting on a
gramophone record. This seems like a witty idea considering that the whole
action of the drama is initiated by the devil who makes a bet with god. Piero
Vinciguerra is accountable for the gripping scenery that never disturbed the
music, even at the very dynamic, visual thrilling Walpurgis Night, when the
floor under the dancing witches divided in three areas moves up and down
while big fountains spew fire.
Also the concept of a stage that belongs to Mefistofele who plays with the
humans as puppets that only move in a prison of their lowest desires for the
devil’s amusement and get seduced to drinking, debaucheries, raping and
killing, was very exciting and clarified by the huge wave-shaped grids on the
left and the right of the stage as an implied prison. The grids stay there for the
whole opera, surrounding the Oktoberfest, the table, where Faust sits
together with Margherita and seduces her, the Walpurgis Night, the dungeon,
where Margherita is held captive after killing her mother and her child and the
mental home, where Faust stays together with Alzheimer’s patients, because
he wants to forget the sins he committed.
These grids and the often-present wafts of mist allowed Michael Bauer to do
impressing plays with the light, like in the fourth act when the beams of the
spotlights created a „M“ through the fog. The production also works with wellimplemented
video projections (Lea Heutelbeck) by which impressions are
accomplished that go outside the envelope of the stage machinery. For
example when Mefistofele and Faust fly through the night on a Motorcycle
and behind them you could see the fast moving eye of the camera on a huge
screen flying between skyscrapers.
It was absolutely fascinating how much pathos Omer Meir Wellber carried
from the score into the musical performance of the orchestra. The finale of
the Epilogue was performed with a maximum of volume and energy. It
seemed very convincing and not disturbing that at the end of the opera the
huge sound of the orchestra and choir of angelic hosts and cherubims
overlayed Mefistofele’s part in a thrilling way, because the devil is left
standing without Faust’s soul, who gets redeemed. Even if the staging was
not that explicit about the end and left Faust’s salvation open, Mefistofele gets
forced to his knees by the power of this tremendous music that spoke for
itself.
Besides the solid casted smaller roles Boito’s Mefistofele contains three main
roles that appear as real characters and not just stereotypes of their own.
Even if Margherita’s part is not very long, Kristine Opolais sticks in one’s
memory with the dungeon scene in the third act. She overwhelmed the
audience as the regretting daughter and mother who had killed her own
mother to be able to spend a night with Faust and drowned her own baby, the
result of this sin, afterwards. After Opolais performed the unidimensional
naive girl that gets seduced by Faust in the second act, her voice presents
totally different colors while acting completely overcome with hysteria.
Faust’s part is not easy at all with all that high notes and requires a strong
voice with a huge stamina. Joseph Calleja was absolutely able to deliver and
was reliable at all registers. With his marvellous voice that generated a
contrast to the dominating gloominess of the scenery Faust’s soul just had to
be saved to sing with the angels.
But the focus in Boito’s opera is set on Mefistofele, as the title suggests it.
René Pape gave a stunning Mefistofele and because of his strong but not
black voice he also was quite a likeable „spirit that always denies“. In his
purple suit, black gloves and red patent-leather shoes he looks like a mafia
don, later like a rockstar in his black leather jacket and on his black Harley
Davidson-motorcycle, on which he takes Faust on a journey through time and
space. Also his acting was very powerful from the beginning when he
challenges god very nonchalantly and stays quite lethargic confronting the
suffering and loving humans, while at the end with the insight that he only
managed to help saving a soul by trying to seduce it once again, he plays
himself into madness.
9 Stars for a musical excellent performance with a dream cast and an exciting
staging of this (unjustly) rarely performed opera!✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰-
Reviewed by Lukas Leipfinger

Daniel Url, B.A.

Daniel Url is a Musicologist from Salzburg, who studied in Salzburg (Austria), Trondheim (Norway) and Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom). His research interests are opera (especially German opera), theory of the fine Arts and vocal music in general. While living in the wonderful town of Salzburg (with the great Salzburg Festival around) he is also travelling to some of the great opera houses in Germany and Austria from Leipzig over Dresden and Vienna to the Bavarian state opera in Munich.

Daniel is the founder of this project and also our main editor and author. For questions, notes or any business inquiries:

daniel0url@gmail.com

Lukas Leipfinger, B.A.

Lukas Leipfinger is a student in Regensburg and is recently doing his Master in German Philology after graduating in German Philology and Musicology. He joined the project in september 2015 as Co-author and is our specialist for male voices. His main interests cover operas from Richard Wagner and the verismo.

Christine Arnold, B.A.

Christine Arnold completed her undergraduate degree in musicology and dance science at Salzburg Universität in Austria and Newcastle University in England. Now she is proceeding her master in musicology and piano studies at the Folkwang Universität in Essen, Germany. Her musical interests are widespread but she counts Verdi's and Mozart's operas to her favourite ones.

Katharina Schiller, B.A.

Katharina was born in Munich and started studying Mathematics/Physics and Musicology there in 2010 and 2011 before moving to Salzburg and continue her studies there. She is a singer herself (choir and solo) since 1995 and is visiting operas regularly. Katharina is our specialist for 17th and 18th century opera.

Genevieve Arkle B.A.

Genevieve Arkle is completing her Master’s in Musicology at King’s College London and in September will be starting her PhD in Music at the University of Surrey. She focuses her academic work in late nineteenth century aesthetics and analysis, and will be writing her PhD project on Mahler’s Ninth and Tenth Symphonies and their relationship with Wagner’s Parsifal. Alongside her academic studies, she has worked with the Royal Opera House with the Jette Parker Young Artist’s Programme and for the English Touring Opera contributing to their Autumn 2015 season and working as Programme Editor of their Spring 2016 season. Most recently she was invited to be a guest writer and journalist for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for their performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony, contributing programme notes and interviewing Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Connolly.